Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS), who are managing the state-owned forests of Scotland, initiates a project to plant five trees for every citizen in Scotland. According to Eurostat, there are 5,4 million people living in Scotland, but FLS has rounded that up to 25 million plants.
Photo: Per Jonsson
Five new trees for every Scotsman in Scotland
Mainly native species, such as birch, oak, aspen rowan and commercial conifers like Scots Pine and Sitka Spruce will be used. The project will be supplemented by an effort to protect the new trees from damage from deer. Therefor 2 500 kilometers of deer fencing and culling of 30 000 deer will be carried out. The length of the fencing corresponds with the turn & return distance between Edinburgh and Berlin.
“Our ambitious tree planting programmes will create new conifer and broadleaved forests that will act as the carbon sinks of the future, benefitting the climate emergency effort, biodiversity and Scotland’s economy.” says Doug Knox, FLS Head of Technical Services Group.
Nine million trees will be felled
In 2021 FLS will harvest some 9 million trees that will generate £410 million in gross value added for the Scottish economy and locking carbon emissions away in practical and in-demand products like houses, interior and furniture.
Read the entire press release from FLS here.
